Game concept – Proposal & Sketch – Leo Liu

Character & Backstory


The main character is more of an exploring type of person rarther than someone seeking for treasure. His goal is to appreciate the nature of this alien planet and take pictures to record the different alien environments.

The backstory of this setting is due to the growth of the population; humans are trying to explore the galaxy to find a suitable planet to survive. They finally located this planet covered with a wonderful ecosystem and sent a group of explorers to take pictures of the planet so they could be sent back.

That’s what the player is told, but the truth is that the player is sent back to Earth several hundred years later, where humans are all gone, disasters have happened, and Earth is left with these new ecosystems that make it look like an alien planet. The main character is sent back to Earth by starships invented by the last humans to explore the current state of Earth and see if it is habitable or not.

Place


The main character is one of the explorers sent to explore this planet and is currently in a section of a mushroom cave, trying to collect precious images of this ecosystem. There is a small lake in this setting and a large mushroom building in the middle, surrounded by rocks and a bridge connected to it (maybe built by aliens or other humans?)

Things


The main character is trying to explore this cave and will eventually find something important in the section inside the large mushroom by walking over the bridge. It might be some notes left by other explorers or information left by alien creatures that the main character needs to collect.

Style


The whole story is Sci-Fi, meaning there might be equipment that is advanced in technology. I wanted to make the place look bright from the glowing mushrooms inside the cave, and also make the lake that goes under the giant mushroom glow with spores inside it. Hopefully, the player will be amazed by how beautiful the place looks with all the lights surrounding them as they enter the cave.

Though the cave is large and gorgeous, I really want to give the player a feeling of loneliness, the sense that they are alone on this planet with no one to talk to, and all they can do is explore the place with ambient sounds constantly informing the player that they are alone.

Gameplay


It is a game for exploring and eventually gathering notes to reveal something horrible. I wish to give the player a sense of chill down their spine when they finally reach the note in the middle of the mushroom, when some part of the truth is revealed. It is a light puzzle where the player will try to figure out ways to reach to large mushroom in the middle.

Reference Images


Mushroom Cave

Magical Mushroom Cave by squidinc

Glowing Lake

Pin on Hintergründe

Giant Mushroom

Genshin mushroom✨✨

Mushroom Trees

Unity Asset Store

Mushroom Biome

Instagram

Terraria Glowing Mushroom Biome

Pin on Terraria

Tunnel to the Cave

Pin on Beautiful Scenery/Whimsical Forrests

Glowing Mushrooms Variation I

👁️ 👁️

Glowing Mushrooms Variation II

Bioluminescent Mushrooms Glowing in the Dark

Glowing Mushrooms Variation III


Glowing Mushrooms Variation IV

Pin on RPG Plantas

Mushroom Style

Pin on Tattoo

13 Comments Add yours

  1. Zhou says:

    Very beautiful references. Do you want the entire game to have a dark color palette to highlight the fluorescent effects?

    1. Leo says:

      Indeed! I really want to highlight some of the more glowing objects such as the lake and the mushrooms to contrast with the cave color!

  2. Nicole says:

    i really like how magical everything sounds and the references you included are so cool

  3. Allison says:

    The concept is really cool! Are you planning on having the game in third or first person?

    1. Leo says:

      I think its better for the game to be in first person 🙂

  4. Irene says:

    All the reference art feels really well put together. How do you plan on visually differentiating the mushrooms in the cave?

    1. Leo says:

      There are various mushroom style that I collected, hopefully I can make all of them glow 🙂

  5. Jay says:

    I love mushrooms! And I absolutely adore the beauty in nature and using it as a means to contrast loneliness. Depending on how it’s built, I think it could be incredibly pretty, in spite of the loneliness. What type of things do you think this secret would change about the cavern to the player?

    1. Leo says:

      I hopefully will put hints about the secret or the old earth society in the cave, it won’t be very obvious and it might lead the player to think it is some kind of alien relic, so I hope finding out part of the truth will be shocking to the player.

  6. Kaitlyn says:

    i adore the vibes here, What will the ended of the game be like if you had one in mind?

    1. Leo says:

      Its when the player grabbed the note at the middle of the large mushroom, I wanted to write something that gives the player a chill down their spine, that’s how this section of the game ends

  7. Lukas Gandras says:

    The mushroom aesthetic is super pretty, and I like that you’re planning out a horrifying twist for the player to discover. Have you thought about what the note is going to say yet?

    1. Leo says:

      I am thinking of just a small hint to the truth, the setting feels more like a piece of puzzle for the whole story so I don’t want to release that much information to the player!

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